The present invention relates to a tension sleeve for a stuffing machine including a supply of shirred casing predisposed on the sleeve. More particularly the invention relates to an adaptor means for the tension sleeve which facilitates the rigid attachment of a sizing disc to the tension sleeve after the casing is put onto the tension sleeve.
One type of stuffing apparatus for food emulsions well known in the art utilizes a reciprocally operable tension sleeve to provide the slack casing required when gathering and closing the casing about the stuffed article. This type of apparatus is exemplified in U.S. Re. Pat. No. 30,390. As disclosed in the '390 Patent, the tension sleeve is a permanent machine component disposed coaxially about the stuffing horn of the machine. The aft end of the tension sleeve is fixed to a slacker mechanism which slides the tension sleeve forward and backward along the stuffing horn at appropriate times in the stuffing cycle. This reciprocating movement provides the slack casing required for gathering and closing.
In the operation of such a stuffing machine, a shirred casing stick is slipped over the tension sleeve and then a sizing disc is detachably secured to the sleeve for mounting the casing on the tension sleeve. The inside diameter of the shirred casing stick is larger than the outside diameter of the tension sleeve to provide the clearance space required for sliding the casing onto the sleeve. When the casing supply is exhausted, the sizing disc is detached from the tension sleeve and a fresh supply of casing is placed over the tension sleeve and is mounted in position on the tension sleeve by reattachment of the sizing disc.
Certain advantages can be obtained by eliminating the clearance between the shirred casing and the tension sleeve. For example, the clearance takes up space which otherwise can be used to accommodate casing. By eliminating this space and having the casing fit tightly about the sleeve the space otherwise utilized for clearance is now utilized to accommodate casing. This provides the casing stick with an enhanced ratio of casing length to shirred casing length (pack ratio) so that the customer has a greater overall length of casing without substantially changing the length of the shirred casing stick. However, when the clearance is eliminated by having the casing gripped tightly about the sleeve, it is difficult or even impossible for the user to slip casing onto the tension sleeve. Accordingly, as is known from United Kingdom Pat. No. 2100571, incorporated herein by reference, the tension sleeve can be removed as a permanent machine component and, instead, it can be provided as a component of the casing article which is adapted to be attached to the stuffing machine.
The casing article as shown in the '571 United Kingdom Patent comprises a tension sleeve core, a supply of shirred casing on the core in the form of a highly compacted shirred casing stick which frictionally engages about and presses inward on the core, and a sizing means attached to the fore end of the core for purposes of stretching the casing as the casing deshirrs and is drawn over and about the sizing means during stuffing. The casing can be disposed on the tension sleeve core in any one of several ways in order to have the stick frictionally engaged about the core. For example, the casing can be shirred and/or compacted directly on the core. Another way is to shirr and/or compact the casing on a mandrel and then longitudinally transfer the compacted casing stick onto a core, of slightly smaller outside diameter than the mandrel, butted against an end of the mandrel. After compaction and transfer, the casing and pleats of the shirred stick will expand inward, as is known in the art, to frictionally engage about the tension sleeve core.
The aft end of the tension sleeve core has a flange or other structure to facilitate attachment of the tension sleeve core to the reciprocally operable slacker mechanism of the stuffing machine. Preferably the casing stick is disposed onto the tension sleeve core over its fore end and towards this flange. This requires that the sizing disc be attachable to the core after the casing had been disposed on the core. In the present invention, this attachment is facilitated by providing the tension sleeve component of the casing article with means to rigidly attach the sizing disc to the tension sleeve after casing has been disposed on the sleeve. As further described herein, the means preferably is a connector in the form of a tubular nosepiece which is physically attached to the fore end of the tension sleeve via a one-way locking arrangement, the nosepiece including means for receiving, positioning, and fixing a sizing means onto the nosepiece via another one-way locking arrangement.